The RFC Yatesbury Community Archaeology Project

This is a partnership project between Finding the Forgotten and the Wiltshire Archaeology Field Group. Now in its second year the project combines archaeological field work with documentary research and oral history to investigate and promote the understanding of this First World War airfield.

RFC Yatesbury was established in late 1916 to train pilots in air reconnaissance before they were sent to the front. Apart from two listed hangars, very little remains of the original airfield and the project aims to assess if any buried remains survive and to uncover finds that will help us understand more about life at the airfield.

Fieldwork, including field walking, metal detecting, geophysics and test pitting has been carried out on various areas of the airfield including the gunnery deflector training range and a German POW camp.

Large numbers of finds have been collected associated with the airfield and the POW camp and have provided us with insights into the structures and lives of the people who lived and served there.